Canadian Competition Act

Canada’s Competition Act is the oldest competition statute in the western world. Its purposes are to promote competition, enhance economic efficiency and strengthen Canada’s status globally.

The Competition Act has four main areas of focus:

Prohibiting agreements between competitors that prevent or restrict competition unreasonably by (a) setting prices or terms, (b) allocating markets or customers, or (c) not doing business with (“boycotting”) certain customers or suppliers;

Reviewing trade practices between suppliers and customers that may have a substantial negative effect on competition (“reviewable trade practices”) such as (a) restricting the sale of a product to a defined market, (b) refusal to deal with a particular customer, (c) resale price maintenance, and (d) “tied selling,” or conditioning the sale of one product on the purchase of another product

Prohibiting abuse of dominance, or using a dominant market position to substantially restrict competition; and

Controlling and reviewing mergers, to prohibit mergers that will prevent or substantially restrict competition.

Criminal and civil penalties for violations of the Act can be severe, and there is no statute of limitations for investigation and prosecution of anti-competitive conduct.

A panel of leading in-house counsel and international enforcement officials engaged in a fast-paced discussion of current antitrust issues that impact multinational companies in today’s increasingly ...

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